Rhodes candidate to pull double duty

Stanford's Miles Unterreiner will pull off a remarkable double Saturday that would be logistically impossible without help from his school and a huge assist by the NCAA: He will first compete in the NCAA cross country meet in Louisville, then fly to Seattle to interview for a Rhodes Scholarship that afternoon.

All that after he begins the interview process as a Rhodes finalist Friday in Seattle, then travels to Kentucky that night in time for the meet.

Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir said Tuesday the university received a waiver from the NCAA on the travel rule so Unterreiner can take a private plane — the only way to make this happen.

There were no commercial flights that could get him from Kentucky to Seattle in time for the interviews with the selection committee.

Augustana College fired football coach Mike Aldrich. Aldrich was Augustana's coach for three seasons, compiling a record of 22-13.

He led the Vikings to their best season in school history in his debut season, when the team went 11-2 and made the NCAA Division II playoffs. Augustana lost to eventual national champion Minnesota Duluth. The Vikings finished 5-6 this season.

The Big East will have a West Division, and Temple, located in Philadelphia, will be part of it.

The conference announced its divisional alignment for 2013, when it becomes a 12-team football league.

The East will have Central Florida, South Florida, Connecticut, Louisville, Cincinnati and Rutgers. The West will have Boise State, Houston, Memphis, San Diego State, SMU and Temple.

Michigan defensive end Frank Clark, 19, received probation for stealing a laptop computer from another student's dorm room.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree home invasion on Sept. 11.

BITS & PIECES: Two views on NHL talks

Representatives of the NHL and the players union reached a new low: They can't even agree on how negotiations are progressing.

The sides did not meet Tuesday, the 59th day of the lockout, but their leaders' statements show vastly different interpretations of the labor talks.

Bill Daly, the NHL's deputy commissioner, said in an email to The Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday that the sides are “very far apart.”

Steve Fehr, special counsel to the NHL Players Association, implied that a labor deal may not be far off.

At a sports management conference in Toronto on Monday, Fehr said the labor dispute can be wrapped “very quickly” once the sides make a breakthrough in negotiations.

Jason Day beat Stacy Lewis with birdie on the second hole of a playoff to lift the PGA Tour past the LPGA Tour in the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge in Henderson, Nev.

Day's shot stopped on a cart path, and the Australian hit a 95-yard approach to 5 feet to set up the winning birdie. Lewis missed an 8-foot birdie putt.

After the teams finished at 19 under in regulation at Rio Secco Golf Club, Nick Watney and Cristie Kerr — coming off a victory Sunday in Mexico in the Lorena Ochoa Invitational — both parred the par-4 18th hole to force a second extra hole.

Watney holed a 45-foot birdie putt on the final hole in regulation to force the playoff.

Davis Love III also played for the PGA Tour, and Natalie Gulbis completed the LPGA Tour lineup.

A Brazilian hospital spokesperson said soccer great Pele is in good condition after surgery. The Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo did not release details, but local media said he had a hip operation.

Pele, who won three World Cup titles with Brazil and scored nearly 1,300 career goals, turned 72 in October.

The International Tennis Federation might copy blood-testing measures used by cycling to weed out drug cheats.

ITF anti-doping manager Stuart Miller told The Associated Press in a telephone interview the federation is working toward more blood and out-of-competition drug testing on players.

Roger Federer and Andy Murray have called for more out-of-competition and blood testing after Lance Armstrong's fall.

Mary Laver, 84, wife of tennis great Rod Laver, died after a long illness. Rod Laver said Mary Laver died Monday morning at their home in Carlsbad.

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